Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab’s latest documentary, “Death Without Mercy,” will begin streaming on Paramount+ on Feb. 6.
The docu from MTV Documentary Film follows two Syrian families over ten days in the aftermath of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkish-Syrian border in 2023. The earthquake killed 55,000 people. The film is being released on Paramount+ on the second anniversary of the fatal event.
Al-Kateab – an activist and director of the 2020 Oscar-nominated doc “For Sama” – was not in Syria for the 2023 earthquake. After hearing about the tragedy while in London, the director immediately began reaching out to people on the ground, including her friends Fadi Al Halabi, a cinematographer on Oscar-winning short “The White Helmets,” and Fuad Sayed Issa, founder of Syrian refugee-led humanitarian group Violet.
“I told them to please, please, please film,” says Al-Kateab. “I kept telling them to please try to document as much as they could, but at that time, there was no film. For me, the priority was that that big of a tragedy should be documented.”
Shortly thereafter, Al-Kateab got a call from producer Sheila Nevins, who, at the time, was the head of MTV Documentary Film. This led “Death Without Mercy,” which premiered at the Sheffield DocFest last year, and weaves together intimate first-hand footage with TV news reports, social media, CCTV, drone shots, archive material, and master interviews.
The doc chronicles the two Syrian families as they search for their missing loved ones while also revealing the corruption, governmental negligence and systemic failures that exacerbated the disaster’s impact.
“Sheila was a major part of this film,” says Al-Kateab. “The moment we got on a call, I heard someone who was very passionate, who cared so much, and who was so angry. She had the same anger I had as Syrian, who had been let down by the whole world and by this unbelievable disaster. So, for me, it was a very eye-opening moment because I knew I was in safe hands. Sheila was going to fight for me and let me tell the story in the best possible way.”
Al-Kateab says that she made the film to “honor the resilience and humanity of those affected by the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake. This film is a testament to their courage, grief, and unwavering determination to hold onto hope in the face of unimaginable loss. Through their stories, I hope to inspire awareness, accountability, and a commitment to ensuring that no community suffers such preventable devastation again.”
She adds, “Watching the fires in L.A. just really brings this film to a very different level and brings us all together to understand how people can be affected in such circumstances. It’s very sad. We know so many people we love (in L.A.), but it’s just telling us that so many things should be better and should be a different way. So, I feel like (this film) is more important than ever now.”
In December, Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted from power early in a bloodless coup by Islamist rebels who took control of Damascus, the Syrian capital, after a 13-year civil war that has caused more than 500,000 deaths and forced millions of Syrians to leave their homeland.
English (US) ·